BETWEEN THE LINES

The transparency of gun-grabbers

Exclusive: Joseph Farah sees clear signals our liberty is at a turning point

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

Fact: Every year, the lives of thousands of private citizens in America are saved because they had firearms when they needed them.

Fact: Nations like Australia and the United Kingdom have seen an increase in violent crime and murder by firearms since banning their possession by private citizens.

Fact: The kind of legislation prompted by recent anti-gun hysteria over the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre would not have prevented the tragedy, but, in fact, make future mass murders more likely.

Fact: The very same politicians promoting a new classification of gun confiscation for private citizens specifically exclude themselves – in fact all government officials – from the ban.

Fact: Everyone concedes the presence of firearms in the hands of good people is a deterrent to violent attacks. That’s why, for instance, Barack Obama is surrounded by armed agents at all times.

Fact: While the government debates how many more kinds of semi-automatic weapons will be banned and confiscated from private citizens, the civilian government, not the military, is stockpiling massive numbers of semi-automatic and fully automatic firearms as well as billions of rounds of hollow-point ammunition for some unknown, undisclosed purpose.

Fact: The Constitution’s Second Amendment was written by America’s founders specifically so that private citizens would never be tyrannized by their government.

Fact: Every genocide, since firearms were invented, has been preceded by disarming of the private citizenry by government.

Nevertheless, despite these indisputable facts, there are still far too many Americans ready, willing and eager to go along with the latest government gun grab scenarios being promoted in Washington.

While the reaction of the public is irrational and programed by fear fanned by government and media propaganda, the motives of government and politicians are transparent.

The nature of government is to move toward tyranny. It’s not in the nature of statists to trust the citizenry and foster self-government and personal responsibility. It is in the nature of government to seek a monopoly on force.

And that’s what’s happening once again in America today. It’s that simple. And it’s up to Americans to decide which side of the barricade they are on – the side of the rule of law, will of the people and liberty, or the side of a phony safety and security would-be tyrants always promise their subjects.

Let’s drill down a bit on the recent request of the Department of Homeland Security for 7,000 new military-style “personal defense weapons” – which, this government would classify as “assault weapons” if they were in your hands.

Here the government acknowledges that these semi-automatic and even fully automatic firearms – many of which would already be unavailable to the average citizen – are indeed “suitable for defense use in close quarters.”

Homeland Security also wants these weapons to have 30-round magazines, something government seeks to ban in the hands of private citizens.

Even the government concedes these firearms are ideal as “personal defense weapons,” which is an admission by those who want to ban private ownership of them that they don’t want you to be able to defend yourself and your family. They only want to be able to defend themselves and their families.

How much more transparent can motivations be?

How much more hypocrisy do the American people need to see before collectively repudiating this government assault on their liberty and right to self-defense?
Whatever happened to that American spirit epitomized by the bumper sticker: “You can have by gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers”?

The first battle this nation fought in its struggle for independence and liberty was at Lexington and Concord, when the ruling government tried to seize the privately owned firearms and ammunition under the control of the New England colonists.

Are we incapable of learning from history?

Are we incapable of appreciating the sacrifices that have already been made for the liberty we enjoy?

Are we incapable of recognizing we are at turning point that could return us all to servitude and tyranny?

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